


Bad End

by Acaeria



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa 3: The End of 希望ヶ峰学園 | The End of Kibougamine Gakuen | End of Hope's Peak High School
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Sibling Bonding, Suicidal Thoughts, Survivor Guilt, im back on my bullshit, what's the opposite of everyone lives/nobody dies?? because this is that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-07
Updated: 2018-02-07
Packaged: 2019-03-15 04:46:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13605831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Acaeria/pseuds/Acaeria
Summary: Somewhere deep underwater, a woman lay in the pool of her own blood, a knife sticking from her abdomen.In a darkened room, another woman appeared to be sleeping, but for the dark mottled bruises staining one side of her face, dried blood pooling beneath her eye.Makoto Naegi sits upright in bed and stares, almost unseeingly, at the vase of half-wilted flowers on the windowsill.





	Bad End

**Author's Note:**

> 「beevil - Yesterday at 19:02  
> pls consider  
> side: future bad end  
> those death scares are actual deaths  
> Kit_Kat - Yesterday at 19:03  
> N o  
> beevil - Yesterday at 19:03  
> goodbye asahina monaca killed you just to fuck with naegi's head  
> goodbye kirigiri, you were too good for this world」

The window is open, allowing red-tinted sunlight to shine through, rose gold dancing across the wooden flooring. The curtains, pale blue in contrast, flutter in the breeze, the air smelling vaguely of sulphur. Makoto Naegi sits upright in bed and stares, almost unseeingly, at the vase of half-wilted flowers on the windowsill. His hair, greasy and unwashed, hangs limply from his head, casting shadows over his eyes. An ill-fitting hospital gown hangs from his pale shoulders, goosebumps adorning his skin. 

The room is silent, save for the rasping of his breaths, small and uneven. 

Then, that silence is broken as the door handle turns, and the door itself is pushed slowly inwards. Makoto stares at the window, showing no sign of having heard the noise, even as a head peeks through the gap, short brown hair bobbing with the movement. In the next moment, Komaru Naegi steps into the room, shutting the door softly behind her; even so, the quiet noise seems to echo in the room. The girl stands by the door, hesitating, taking in the sight of her brother.

This is the first time she’s seen him in years.

This is now how she imagined their reunion going at all.

In her mind, the two of them would meet at a police station once she was finally rescued from her imprisonment, or, later, on the streets of Towa City, as a Future Foundation helicopter dropped him off. At first, he would be distracted by something else, and she would stare at his back, scarcely believing it was him; then, he would turn, and they would share in a moment of breathless awe at the sight of their sibling, older and wiser and changed, and then they would run, and meet each other in a tearful embrace.

But in reality, she stands at the door of a private hospital room, staring at a stranger bathed in red light, insubstantial, as if he had become a ghost.

“M-Makoto?” she calls, her voice uncertain, her stomach heaving with anxiety. She hasn’t felt this sick since– well. Since the controller, really.

The figure in the bed moves, quivering slightly before turning to face her. His movements are slow and stiff, as if he hasn’t moved in a very long time. From the front, he looks no more familiar: his skin is deathly pale, dark bags like bruises blossoming beneath his eyes. His lips are chapped, and his eyes–  _ his eyes _ . They’re glassy and unseeing, like the eyes of a corpse. If she couldn’t hear him breathing, if she hadn’t seen him move, she could almost have mistaken him for one.

“Komaru?” His voice is raspy. Komaru flinches at the sound. 

“Y-Yeah, it’s me,” she says, forcing a smile, and taking a step away from the door. “The doctors say you’re being uncooperative. Nobody could get you to talk, or to eat, so– they came and got me.” A nervous laugh bubbles out from between her lips. “You know, I have important work to do in Towa. We’re rebuilding the city. You’re really a hassle, making me come all the way out here, you know?” Silence. He simply stares at her– or maybe s _ tares through _ would be a better descriptor. “Th-that was a lie. You’re not a hassle at all. Actually, I’m kinda worried about you.” A hand rubs at the back of her head. “I’m actually really worried. So can you just– can you just say something? Please?”

For a moment, it seems like he isn’t going to respond. Then, he licks his lips, and opens his mouth. “What is there to say?” His voice is flat. Emotionless.  _ Dead _ . 

_ Is this despair?  _ she wonders, swallowing. Her hands clasp in front of her, fingers twitching with nervous energy. 

“W-Well, maybe you can start with why you haven’t been eating? Or why you’ve been ignoring everyone who tries to help you? O-O-Or, I don’t know! Just talk to me, Makoto! Tell me… Tell me how to help you!”

Silence. Her cry echoes around the room. She feels awkward for a moment, and reaches up to wipe away the tears forming in her eyes.

“You can’t,” Makoto whispers, at last. “There’s nothing you can do.”   
“No… No, that’s wrong!” The shout seems to get through to him, just a little, and he starts, a new clarity entering his eyes. His eyes meet hers and she sees in them a ferocity and loathing so intense that she jerks backwards.  _ He… He’s mad at me…? _

“Wrong?” he echoes. His voice is still flat, but there’s an edge to it now, sharp like a knife cutting into her skin. “If I’m wrong, then tell me Komaru, what can you,  _ any of you _ , do? You can’t go back in time! You can’t bring them back to life! You can’t–” He breaks off, his head dropping suddenly, as if he were a puppet on a wire and the string had just been cut. “You can’t save them.” His voice is barely a whisper. Komaru swallows.

“Is… Is this about your friends? The ones who died in the killing game?”

He doesn’t raise his head. Doesn’t look at her. His gaze seems fixed on his hands, lying palm-up on the sheets in his lap, shaking slightly. “I… I saw them. When I watched that video. All of them… All of my friends… And they were right. They were right.”   
“Right about what?” Her chest feels tight. Her words come out as a muffled whisper. 

“‘ _ Why are you alive? You should have died instead of us. Join us.’  _ But Sakakura knocked that knife out of my hands. I wish– If he had been a few seconds later– then maybe–” 

“ _ Stop it! _ ” His head jerks up, eyes widening as he stares at her. Komaru stares back at him, one hand gripped in the other, tears gleaming in her eyes and spilling down her cheeks. “Don’t– don’t talk like that! Don’t ever say that you wanted to… you want to… That’s not you! That’s not the brother I knew!”

She thinks, for a moment, that there are tears in his eyes, too, but she can barely see through her own. 

“You don’t know– I should be dead. They’d kill me if they knew, you’d want me dead too–”

“No!” Komaru’s throat ached. “No, that’s not true! You’re my brother, I– I want you to be safe and happy and alive–”

“Even though I killed them?!” Makoto’s cry, barely a yell but louder than anything he’s said so far, stops her short. She blinks, staring. 

“Wha… t…?”

“Kirigiri. Asahina. They’re dead because of me. Because I… Because I killed them…”

“No.” Komaru shakes her head. “You’re wrong. You have to be wrong. There must be some mistake. You’re not… you’re not  _ like _ that.” 

“No, you’re the one who’s wrong. I… I killed them. They were my friends and… Her blood was everywhere… I was covered in it, I… _ My hands _ … A-And her face, it was almost  _ black _ , she was bleeding from the  _ eyes _ ...” 

Sometime between the start of his speech and the end of it he’d started crying, his shoulders heaving, ugly sounds tearing from his disused throat. Komaru’s heart aches for him, and she makes her way towards the bed.  _ Who cares? _ she thinks.  _ This is my brother, and he needs me. _

So she sits on the edge of the bed and wraps her arms around him, pulling him into a hug. He curls up into her chest, tears soaking the front of her shirt, and she runs a hand through his hair, crying, too. 

“It’s okay,” she tells him, choking back a sob. “You’re gonna be okay.” Now that he’s pressed against her like this, she can feel just how thin he is. “God, Makoto, you should have said something. You should have told someone. Instead of– of bottling it all up and letting it destroy you like this.”

He shakes his head. “How? How could I tell them? They were their friends, too. They’d have killed me.”   
“And lose another friend?”

“How can I still be their friend after what I did? Either way, it doesn’t matter. It’s the rules.”

Komaru almost asks what he means by that, but then it comes to her, and she suddenly feels cold. “This isn’t a class trial, Makoto. You won’t– nobody’s going to execute you.”

“Even though I deserve it?”   
“Don’t  _ say _ that!” 

“B-But I…”

“Why don’t you tell me what happened? I’m sure… Something’s not right here. I can feel it.”

Makoto gives a tear-filled snort. “ _ Nothing’s _ right anymore. But, I guess… I can tell you, i-if you want…”

He pushes against her chest and she reluctantly lets him go, allowing him to lean back. He turns his head towards the window and she thinks, for a moment, that all their process has been erased, but then he begins to talk, his voice shaky and unsteady still. 

“It was– the second time we slept. The first time after the rules were told to us. A-And it wasn’t the monitor. I know, because Gozu was the one who died that round, he was strung up right next to it… But, um, I w-woke up, and for a moment I was happy, because I was awake, and everything was  _ fine _ … And then I realised that I… wasn’t where I fell asleep. And I looked down and… There was so much blood, a-and Asahina, she-she was in the middle of it and she wouldn’t  _ answer _ me…” He’s shaking, now, and Komaru reaches out a hand to place on his shoulder, but he shakes her off. “Then– it was later. The fourth time limit. A-And Kirigiri had been off doing her own thing, and it was the first time I’d seen her since the game started, a-and… I should have known. The way she was talking… I should have known something was wrong. But I didn’t question it. And when I woke up… She wasn’t moving. And the light on her brace-bracelet was flashing. Her forbidden action had been committed:  _ pass the fourth time limit with Makoto Naegi alive _ .” He shook his head. “Don’t you see? It’s my fault. I- I’m a murderer–” His breath hitched. Komaru frowned.

“No, that’s wrong,” she muttered under her breath. He turned his face back towards her, confusion underneath the tears. 

“W-What?”   
“I said, that’s wrong. If it was Kirigiri’s forbidden action that killed her, then it was the mastermind’s fault. What they gave her… it was a sadistic choice. But she made it. She chose to die, and let you live.”

“B-But–” 

“No buts. The alternative… The alternative is that she would have had to kill you. Kill you, or let you die. Do you really think Kirigiri could have done that? That she could have lived with herself afterwards?” Makoto’s lip trembled. He shook his head. 

“N-No.”

“You’re allowed to mourn her, Makoto, but don’t… Don’t mourn the fact that you’re still here.” She takes his hands in her own, squeezes them tight. “Then, there’s the whole thing with Asahina… Something doesn’t add up there, either. You don’t remember killing her?”

“W-Well, no, but who else could it have been? Gozu was dead a-and I was the one covered in her blood–” 

“But you don’t  _ remember _ it. Maybe you just blocked it out, but… I think someone was trying to mess with your head.”   
“Wh-what?”   
“Think, is there anyone that could have avoided being put to sleep?” 

Makoto starts to shake his head, then freezes. “G-Gekkogahara. She was a robot.”

Komaru nodded. “Yeah, and a robot being controlled by  _ Monaca _ no less. The girl who destroyed an entire city in a day and showed me footage of our parents’ dead bodies just to mess with  _ me _ .”

Makoto’s eyes were wide. “Th-Then…”

“It’s not your fault. You didn’t kill them.” She leans her head against his. “Are you hearing me? You’re not a murderer. So… So  _ please _ . Stop this.” 

He hiccups again, and buries his face in her shoulder. “ _ Komaru… _ ” She wraps her arms around him.

“Cooperate with the doctors. Talk to your friends. Eat a little. Let us help you, before we  _ lose _ you. We can’t… we can’t lose anyone else, Makoto.”

He sobs. “I’m sorry.”   
“It’s okay.”

“I-It’s not.”   
“It will be.”

“B-But… If it wasn’t my fault… If I didn’t kill them… Why do I feel this way? Why… Why do I still want to… to…”

“That’s just despair.” He stiffens.

“No, it can’t be–”

“I think, after Enoshima, people have forgotten the true meaning of that word. I-It was something I had to relearn, rehabilitating the kids in Towa. Despair doesn’t mean crazy, or evil. Despair means  _ hurting _ . Despair means that you’ve been through so much and you’ve tried so hard and you can’t keep going anymore. At least, not on your own. Despair means… forgetting that there are people that can help you. That you don’t have to do it alone.”

He laughs through his tears. “You’ve gotten really wise, Komaru.”

She smiles. “People say that I take after my brother.”

* * *

Somewhere deep underwater, a woman lay in the pool of her own blood, a knife sticking from her abdomen.

* * *

In a darkened room, another woman appeared to be sleeping, but for the dark mottled bruises staining one side of her face, dried blood pooling beneath her eye.

* * *

In the hallway of a private hospital, Komaru Naegi breathes, smiling at the expectant faces waiting for her.

“He’s going to be okay,” she tells them.

**Author's Note:**

> liberties were, of course, taken with asahina's death, mostly because if you're gonna kill someone to fuck with someone's head, you may as well make it as traumatising as possible.
> 
> you know, this isn't the first dr fic i've attempted, but it's the first one i've finished, and i think that says a lot about me, my tastes in fic, and my interaction with this series.
> 
> also, i'm absolutely in love with komaru naegi. her character development kills me, guys. i'm dead.


End file.
